Rescuers race to free people trapped by Helene, leaving dozens dead

PERRY, Fla. (AP) – Hurricane Helene On Friday, the floods left an enormous path of destruction across Florida and the southeastern United States. They killed at least 44 people, snapped towering oak trees like branches and tore apart houses as rescue workers launched desperate missions to save people from floods.

Among those killed were three firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was hit by a falling tree. The deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, according to an Associated Press tally.

The Category 4 hurricane has knocked out power to some hospitals in southern Georgia, and Gov. Brian Kemp said authorities had to use chainsaws to clear debris and clear roads. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) at the time. Landing made late Thursday in a sparsely populated region of Florida's rural Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and resort towns where the state's panhandle and peninsula meet.

Moody's Analytics expects property damage to range from $15 billion to $26 billion.

The wreckage stretched hundreds of miles north into northeastern Tennessee, where a “ dangerous rescue situation The helicopter accident occurred after 54 people were taken to the roof of Unicoi County Hospital as water quickly flooded the facility. Everyone was rescued and no one was still in the hospital as of late Friday afternoon, Ballad Health said.

In North Carolina, a lake from the film “Dirty Dancing” towered over a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, although there were no immediate concerns of failure. People were also evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a town of about 7,000 people, over fears that a dam could be built nearby, although officials later said the structure had not failed.

Tornadoes struck some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, critically injuring four people.

A record 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain fell in Atlanta in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in a two-day period since records began in 1878, Georgia's Office of the State Climatologist said on the social platform Some parts of the city were so badly flooded that only car roofs were sticking out of the water.

Climate change has exacerbated the conditions that allow such storms to thrive. They intensify quickly in the warmer waters, sometimes turning into strong cyclones within a few hours.

When Laurie Lilliott turned onto her street in Dekle Beach, Florida, after Helene plowed through, she couldn't see the roofline of her house behind the palm trees. It had collapsed, torn apart by the violent storm surge, and one corner was still supported by a post.

“It took me a long time to breathe,” Lilliott said.

As she surveyed the damage, her name and phone number were still written on her arm in permanent marker – a reminder from Taylor County officials to help identify bodies recovered after the storm. Since August 2023, the community has been directly impacted by three hurricanes.

All five people who died in a Florida county were in neighborhoods where residents were ordered to evacuate, said Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff in Pinellas County in the St. Petersburg area. Some who stayed ended up having to hide in their attics to avoid the rising water. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door-to-door in flooded areas.

Additional deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and a Georgia firefighter who died when trees crashed into their trucks.

Video on social media showed raindrops and siding falling from buildings in Perry, Florida, near where the storm made landfall. A news channel showed that a house had fallen and curfews were imposed in many communities.

Also in Perry, the hurricane tore off a church's new roof that was replaced last year after Hurricane Idalia.

When the water reached knee height in Kera O'Neil's home in Hudson, Florida, she knew it was time to escape.

“There's a moment where you think, 'If this water rises above the level of the oven, we won't have much room to breathe,'” she said, recalling how she and her sister waded through chest-deep water with one cat in a plastic box and another in a cardboard box.

President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency traveled to the area. The agency deployed more than 1,500 personnel and assisted in 400 rescue operations by late morning.

In Tampa, some areas could only be reached by boat.

Officials urged those trapped to call rescuers and not step into floodwaters, warning that live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris could pose a danger to them.

More than 3 million homes and businesses in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas were without power late Friday, according to data poweroutage.us. Due to Helene's rapid movement throughout the day, outages also occurred at the site as far away as Ohio and Indiana.

In Georgia, a utility warned of “catastrophic” damage to utility infrastructure, with more than 100 power lines damaged. And officials in South Carolina, where more than 40% of customers were without power, said crews had to pick their way through rubble to find what remained in some places.

The hurricane came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of there Met Idalia last year with almost the same intensity. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined impacts of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August.

“It’s hard and we understand that. We also understand that this is a resilient state,” DeSantis said at a news conference in storm-ravaged St. Pete Beach.

Soon after it crossed the land, Helene became weaker to a tropical storm and later to a post-tropical cyclone. Forecasters said catastrophic flooding continued, with more than 30 centimeters of rain falling in some areas.

A mudslide in the Appalachian Mountains has washed out part of a highway at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line.

Another slide rocked homes in North Carolina and left residents waiting more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, deputy director of Buncombe County Emergency Services. His emergency call center received more than 3,300 calls within eight hours on Friday.

“This is something we will be dealing with for many days and weeks to come,” Cole said.

Meteorologists warned of flooding in North Carolina that could be worse than anything seen in the past century. Evacuations were underway and around 300 roads across the state were closed. The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to assist.

School districts and universities have canceled classes. Airports in Florida that were closed because of the storm reopened Friday. Inspectors are examining bridges and causeways along the Gulf Coast, the state's transportation secretary said.

Helene too flooded parts of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsulaflooded streets and toppled trees as it passed the resort town of Cancun this week. In addition, more than 200,000 homes and businesses in western Cuba lost power.

Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year because of the record warm sea temperatures.

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Payne reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Russ Bynum in Valdosta, Georgia; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Andrea Rodríguez in Havana; Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.